Revolutionaries
by ShadowEidolon
Summary: When you meet yourself, it's probably not a good sign. It's even worse when the other "you" arrives in a warship, announcing that you are all going to die. When Camp Half-Blood suddenly gains a few strange arrivals, Percy and his friends have to figure out exactly why most of them will end up dead, and if they can even stop it. Unfortunately, their "guests" aren't exactly peaceful.
1. Landing Craft

It was probably the warship that should have tipped Percy off. To his embarrassment, he was one of the last to notice it. At the moment, he was trying not to doze off as Annabeth tried to explain something or other to him.

Annabeth paced back and forth along the floor of the Big House, folding and unfolding the newspaper in her hands absentmindedly. "I'm telling you, it doesn't make sense," Annabeth repeated, her brow furrowing. "The amount of new demigods popping up had increased, but I thought that had just been good luck. Now, though, even the mortals are spotting monsters. During the war against Gaia, that was explainable. There were just a very large amount of creatures in relatively small areas. But now, though… well, see for yourself."

Annabeth tossed the newspaper over to Percy. Being half-asleep, Percy didn't notice the throw until the paper smacked him in the forehead, causing him to almost fall off of the chair he was reclining on. Percy quickly sat up, picking up the newspaper and trying to look awake. Unfolding the newspaper, Percy frowned at the headline.

"Uh, tell me if I'm not reading this correctly, but this doesn't have anything to do with monsters," Percy pointed out, turning the paper upside-down as if it would help him understand it better. "I mean, all it says is, _Court Ruling Released: America in Shock_. Unless you're talking about lawyers, I have no idea what monsters you're talking about."

Annabeth sighed in exasperation. Snatching the newspaper from Percy's hands, she began flipping through the pages quickly, shaking her head. "Not the headline, Percy. Honestly, are you being this dense on purpose or…"

Annabeth trailed off, folding the paper over on itself and handing back to Percy. "There," she said, gesturing towards an article about half the size of a postcard.

Percy scanned the article, trying to look contemplative. It wasn't easy. After a minute or two he chuckled. "Wait, you're worried about _this_? _Local Man Claims To Have Seen Fire-Breathing Dog. Alien Connection?_ Honestly, Annabeth, this isn't something to panic about. For all we know, this guy had a bit too much to drink and saw a chihuahua. Crackpots like this show up all the time."

Annabeth rolled her eyes, snatching back the newspaper. "Did you even listen to what I was saying? I know that crazy people show up occasionally, I've been to New York. The point is, these are popping up everywhere. Usually the Mist takes care of it, and we only had to be put on cleanup once or twice a year, tops. This is the sixth one this week. Something's going on, and I don't like it."

Percy got to his feet, stretching. "Well, as much fun as listening to your conspiracy theories is, I'm going to need to take a timeout. Give it a break, Annabeth. We've only been back at camp for a month now, tops. We just managed to defeat the entire freaking planet in a battle. Can't we just take a little time to, you know, relax?"

Annabeth tossed the newspaper onto her bunk, giving Percy a sideways look. "The only reason I haven't brought this up earlier was because you insisted on your relaxation. And don't forget how long our last 'break' lasted. A few months. So please excuse me for wanting to be prepared."

Percy shrugged. "You're excused. Besides," he said grinning and wrapping his arms around Annabeth, "if our vacation from life-or-death, fate-of-the-world missions only lasts for few months, let's make the most of it, shall we?"

Annabeth shook her head, failing to repress a small smile. "You really are an idiot."

Percy grinned, giving her a quick peck on the cheek. "That's why I have you. It's easier to relax when someone else is freaking out."

Annabeth rolled her eyes, slipping out of Percy's hug. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize I was your stress sponge."

Percy shook his head, laughing. "Can't you just relax for a minute or two? Nothing bad is going to happen unless you keep making these conspiracy theories."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so I'm psychic now? Okay, fine."

Annabeth dramatically pointed towards the door to the Big House, squeezing her eyes shut as if concentrating deeply. "My _conspiracy theory_ power, as you so eloquently called it, is telling me that Jason is going to come running through that door in exactly thirty seconds, and will say something that will prove that I'm not 'freaking out', as you claim."

Percy glanced up at the cuckoo clock on the far wall, right next to a collection of weird pictures of Chiron from the sixties. Creepy. Percy stared as the second hand ticked around the clock.

"Tell you what, if you're right about this, I promise I will never relax again. I'll be as conspiracy-crazy as you are, if that's even possible."

Annabeth glared at Percy, who shrugged and continued watching the clock. Ten seconds to go. Five seconds. Three, two, one.

The silence was absolute. Percy could swear that if he had dropped Riptide, it would have sounded like a cannonball.

Percy looked back at Annabeth, grinning. "Too bad. Looks like we're going to have to relax for another month or so, if that doesn't kill y-"

Percy was cut off when the screen door of the Big House flew open, smacking against the wall with the sound of a table being knocked over. Standing in the doorway was Jason himself, panting and leaning against the door. He glanced up, looking from Percy to Annabeth and back.

"Okay, good, you're both here," Jason panted. It was clear that he had sprinted all the way from the other side of camp. Jason shook his head in disbelief, as if he couldn't believe what he had just witnessed.

"You two really need to come see this," Jason managed, trying to catch his breath. "I'm not quite sure what that thing is, but it wasn't there a minute ago, and I'm pretty sure it has enough firepower on it to wipe out the entire camp."

Jason glanced at Percy and Annabeth, who stared back at him with a mixture of shock and disbelief. "What?" Jason asked, confused. "Did I interrupt something?"

Percy slowly turned his gaze over to Annabeth, who looked just as shocked as he was. He cleared his throat awkwardly. "Is it, um, is it too late to take back the bet?"

* * *

><p>It took a grand total of fifteen minutes to get to Fireworks Beach. A third of that time was spent rounding up the remaining campers who hadn't yet made a dash for the beach. Unfortunately, the camp was rather barren at the moment. Frank and Hazel were at Camp Jupiter for the time being, and wouldn't be visiting Camp Half-Blood until next weekend. Nico had been shadow traveling to pick up new recruits again, so right now he was somewhere in Tampa Bay. Piper was already on the beach, as Jason explained, and Leo was, well, still dead. Only four of the old Argo II crew was around camp. Percy didn't like those odds. Running headfirst into situations like this with only two-thirds strength seemed like a recipe for catastrophe, but it wasn't really like they had much choice. Besides, charging blindly into danger was Percy's specialty.<p>

Jason explained the cause of the panic as the three of them sprinted through the woods. Apparently Jason and Piper had been strolling along the beach, which Jason insisted was to scout hiding places for the next capture-the-flag. Right. Anyway, the two of them had been immersed in conversation when _boom_. There it was. Jason stumbled over his words trying to describe what exactly "it" was, but two key points stood out; it was very, _very_ big and very, _very_ heavily-armed. Percy cursed in Greek. It had only been a month since the last time some heavily-armed maniac had paraded up to the camp with the intent of blasting it off of the map. Percy wasn't exactly eager for a repeat.

Percy was the first to break out of the woods, but he screeched to a stop so suddenly that Annabeth dashed directly into his back, and Jason into hers. Percy barely noticed the impact. He was too busy staring at the massive warship that was hovering a hundred yards above their heads.

The entirety of the camp was clustered beneath the colossal battleship, many of them gripping their weapons tightly and glancing at each other nervously. Percy noticed Piper near the front of the crowd, staring up at the dark underbelly of the metallic monstrosity above them. She turned around and shouted something at Jason, but Percy couldn't hear her over the deafening roar of the warship's engines.

The warship itself was a steel monstrosity of mismatched armor and heavy weaponry. The plating was battleship gray, scorched badly in several places and riddled with bullet holes and dozens of cannonball-shaped indentions. The barrels of massive artillery cannons poked out the sides of the battleship, their sights aimed uncomfortably close to the camp. Oily black smoke poured out of an improvised smokestack set near the back of the vessel, painting the early afternoon sky an ugly tar-black. A gigantic black sail billowed in the morning wind, the tattered edges flapping loosely. Chipping paint on the ship's bow depicted the greek letter omega, and painted directly below the symbol was the ship's title, _T__he Achilles_. Overall, the ship looked like a massive, militarized version of the _Argo II_. The resemblance made Percy's skin crawl.

Percy glanced at Jason, who was also staring up at the warship in a mixture of amazement and nervousness. Without meaning to, Percy clamped his hand down on Riptide's grip. Whatever was up there in that ship, Percy couldn't tell if it was friend or foe.

"This can't be Leo, right?" Percy shouted over the deafening roar of the engines. Jason looked over at him, apparently contemplating the suggestion. Finally, he shook his head.

"Can't be!" Jason shouted back, struggling to be heard over the screeching. "Leo would have at least a firework launcher, or a confetti cannon. He at least had some flair."

Percy frowned, returning his gaze to the warship. Suddenly, the engines cut out, sharply dropping from a cacophony of screeching and burning to nearly a whisper. Some of the campers screamed, dropping to the ground and covering their heads. Percy couldn't particularly blame them. They were only a few yards away from the belly of the warship. If the monstrosity were to suddenly drop like a rock, it would crush the majority of the camp instantly. Fortunately, the warship remained floating nonetheless, as numerous exhaust ports slid open in the hull and coughed out clouds of putrid smoke. The entire ship groaned mechanically, almost as though it was exhausted from a long, grueling voyage.

A hush fell over the campers. Percy wasn't exactly sure what to expect next. A warning shot, perhaps? A demand for unconditional surrender? Exactly how many gods were furious enough at them to fund the creation of a war machine just to crush Camp Half-Blood? Percy glanced back at Annabeth warily.

"Okay, maybe your conspiracy theories weren't as crazy as they seemed," Percy admitted, shifting into a fighting stance instinctively.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow at him, shifting her gaze between him and the iron behemoth above them. "Really? It takes an entire warship for you to admit that I was right again?"

Percy scowled. "One more day, couldn't we have had _one more day_ without being attacked by a giant or warship or an entire planet? Was that too much to ask?"

Jason cleared his throat, stepping between Percy and Annabeth. "If you two are done arguing, then you might want to take a look up on the deck."

Annabeth glanced up at the warship, squinting to see what Jason was pointing at. "Is… is that a white flag?"

Percy stared up at the warship, dumbfounded. Sure enough, he could just make out a figure standing on the deck of the _Achilles_, waving back and forth a white flag made of a yardstick and an old pillowcase. Percy had to strain his eyes to see it, but he could just make out the words scrawled on the pillowcase:_ DON'T SHOOT!_

Percy would have laughed if the situation hadn't been so threatening. Here they were, standing under a thousand-ton warship filled to the brim with artillery, and the pilot of the warship was worrying about _them_ shooting? Percy couldn't believe it.

Without warning, one of the artillery guns nearest to the beach fired with a burst of smoke and a deafening blast. Percy had to dive backwards to avoid getting splattered across the beach by the projectile, praying to the gods that it wasn't going to explode. If it did, then this would be an exceptionally embarrassing way to die. He could see the obituary now: _Percy Jackson, Son of Poseidon, Victor of the Titan War and Giant War: killed by stray explosive shell._ Not the most dignified way to go.

Luckily for Percy, the artillery gun had launched what appeared to be a gigantic lead anchor into the sand. A thin steel chain was bolted to the back of it, forming a steep slope from the warship to the beach. Percy staggered to his feet, shaking the pebbles out of his hair and spitting the sand out of his mouth. Next to him, Annabeth giggled, covering her mouth in a vain attempt to muffle the sound. Percy couldn't really blame her. Burying his own head in the sand wasn't exactly the most serious of situations.

The figure on the _Achilles_ set down the white flag, swapping it out for a device that appeared to be a clothes-hanger/magnet hybrid. Before anyone in the camp could react, the figure took a running leap off of the edge of his ship, soaring directly towards the cable trailing off of the anchor. Within an instant, the figure was yanked by his magnet contraption towards the metal chain, snapping onto it in a gut-wrenching lurch. As soon as the contraption latched onto the wire, the figure began skidding down towards the beach, sliding down the chain like an impromptu zipline. This time it was Annabeth and Jason diving out of the way to avoid being run over by the rapidly-moving projectile of a person.

The figure hit the ground in a combat roll, on his feet almost instantaneously and shifting into a combat crouch that almost mirrored Percy's own. The figure glanced up at the three demigods in front of him, switching his gaze quickly from one to the other. It looked like he was taking them all in, not sure who he should strike first.

Percy uncapped Riptide instinctively, allowing the celestial bronze blade to leap to its fully-formed state. Next to him, he noticed Annabeth and Jason drawing their weapons, too. Whoever this guy was, none of them were taking any chances.

The boy's outfit didn't give them any reason to relax. Judging by his size and body shape, this was definitely a teenage boy, roughly the same size as Percy. He was wearing beaten sneakers and torn-up jeans, but otherwise he was dressed like he had just stepped out of a war zone. The boy's head was completely hidden within an ancient leather gas mask, the steel air filters a charcoal-like color from overlapping layers of rust. He wore a black hoodie that had clearly seen better days, with a frayed belt wrapped tightly around his waist. Fastened loosely to his side was a beaten leather holster, with the corroded handle of a handgun poking out of the top. Overall, the boy wouldn't have looked out of place in a zombie movie, or a dystopian television series.

The boy and the three demigods had an awkward standoff for a few seconds. Percy half-expected a tumbleweed to blow by, and a western movie soundtrack to start playing in the distance.

Finally the boy got to his feet, his hand still resting on his handgun. "I, um…" he started awkwardly, his voice muffled by the leather mask strapped to his face. "I come in peace. Don't stab me. I have this irrational fear of being skewered by angry demigods."

Annabeth took a step forward, which was more than could be said about either Percy or Jason. Both of them just glanced at each other. Usually it was easy to tell whether they were supposed to fight someone or not. If this guy had made a melodramatic speech, referred to them by their first _and_ last names, or called any of them a fool, he would have clearly been evil. Telling a bad joke? That was more in the gray area.

"Who are you?" Annabeth asked sharply, switching her gaze between the boy in front of her and his warship. "And why, exactly, did you feel the need to bring an entire armada with you?"

The boy turned to face her, glancing away from the mass of campers he had been staring at a moment earlier. Suddenly, he froze. The boy's arms went slack, and he did nothing but stare mutely at Annabeth, who was clearly uncomfortable with the attention.

"What? Did you go mute on us?" Annabeth asked, shifting her stance uncomfortably.

The boy stayed quiet for a few more seconds, before he whispered something behind his gas mask. To Percy, it sounded like the kid had either said, "Annabeth," or, "And a sloth". Judging by context, it was probably the first one.

Without warning, the boy suddenly took a step forward, reaching his hand out towards Annabeth. Percy suddenly remembered that he had legs, and he quickly took a step between Annabeth and the stranger, holding Riptide level to his chest.

"Take another step forward," Percy warned, allowing Riptide's tip to hover inches from the other boy's hoodie, "And we might go back on your 'white flag' policy."

The boy stopped, his arm half-extended. Percy could hear Annabeth behind him quietly insisting that he put the sword down, but he didn't move his blade an inch.

"Who are you?" Percy repeated firmly, keeping the sword only an inch or two away from the boy's chest. "And why are you here?"

The boy stared at Percy for a moment, cocking his head slightly. Percy could swear that he heard repressed laughter from behind the gas mask. Finally the stranger shrugged, reaching up to grab the straps of his gas mask. After a minute or two of playing with the straps and buckles, the boy managed to rip the gas mask off of his face, taking a gasp of fresh air.

Percy felt his lungs freeze inside his rib cage. Behind him, he heard Annabeth gasp, and Jason muttered something very rude in Latin under his breath.

The boy's uncut black hair fell almost over his eyes, like he hadn't had a decent haircut in months. His face was smeared with dirt, barely concealing some bad scrapes and cuts along the side of his face. The boy still managed a slight smile, but it wasn't a happy one. It was more of a, _look at that, we're all going to die, yay_, half-crazed grin. Black war paint was streaked underneath his sea-green eyes, already beginning to chip from long-term wear.

The boy grinned at the three of them, evidently amused by their reactions.

"The name's Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon," the boy said, strapping his gas mask to his side and pulling a beaten and rusty pen out of his pocket. Spinning the corroded Riptide between his fingers, the boy's expression turned serious.

"And I'm here to make sure every single one of you doesn't die a fiery death. Now, please tell me one of you has something for me to eat."

* * *

><p>(Note: I do not own Percy Jackson or the Heroes of Olympus). I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, thanks to everyone reading this.<p> 


	2. Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall

Percy had thought he had seen weird things before. He was a demigod, for crying out loud. Seeing a commando version of himself zipline out of a militarized flying warship? This was an entirely new level of weird.

Percy, Annabeth, and Jason stood stock-still for a full minute, staring at the new arrival. Annabeth was blinking rapidly, almost like she was trying to wake up from a dream. Jason kept switching his gaze back and forth from Percy to Percy, apparently trying to figure out what on earth was going on. Finally, Percy coughed into his arm, breaking the silence.

"Um, you're not Percy Jackson," Percy said, pointing to the new arrival, and then to himself. "_I'm_ Percy Jackson. Unless something changed when I wasn't looking."

Percy glanced over at Annabeth, as if checking to make sure she hadn't duplicated him when he wasn't looking. Fortunately, Annabeth looked just as confused as he did.

The newly-arrived Percy raised an eyebrow, glancing at Annabeth and Jason. "Am I really this dense?"

"Yes, you are," Annabeth and Jason replied simultaneously.

"Thanks a lot," Percy grumbled, still gripping Riptide tightly. Call him crazy, but he wasn't really eager to trust the… other Percy. Whatever circumstances caused a duplicate of himself to come sailing into camp on a warship completely decked out in riot gear, Percy wasn't exactly eager to get into.

The other Percy sighed, putting his hands in the air as if to prove he wasn't carrying a weapon. "I said I come in peace. Seriously, why can't even the other me trust me?"

Percy frowned, continuing to hold his sword level to the other boy's chest. "You tell me."

Jason raised his hand, like he was trying to be called on in a classroom. "Um, as surreal as it is watching two versions of Percy bicker, I think we're all forgetting that the, uh, _new_ Percy said something about how we're _all going to die_?"

The new Percy shrugged, as if he was considering Jason's statement. "Well, most of you, anyway. Err, most of us. Well, more accurately, most of-"

"Hold on," Annabeth interrupted, holding up her hand to halt the conversation. "You're saying that we're all going to die as you arrive in a warship, and we're not expected to take that as a threat?"

The new Percy sighed in exasperation, adjusting the holster attached to his side. "I'm not the one trying to kill you! Honestly, give me, I don't know, maybe two minutes to explain and I'll-"

The new Percy was interrupted again, this time from an ear-piercing explosion from the _Achilles_. For a moment, Percy thought that the warship had opened fire on the camp, and his heart stopped. He was reminded of the scene of few months ago in Camp Jupiter, when his brief attempt to talk the Romans out of killing the Greeks was interrupted devastatingly by the _Argo II_ opening fire on the city of New Rome. Percy wasn't keen to reenact the following sequence of events.

To Percy's surprise and relief, however, the _Achilles_ showed no signs of opening fire. Instead, dark clouds of smoke poured from every crevice of the ship, causing the warship to resemble a gigantic oily cloud. The port side of the ship sank slightly, causing the entire ship to tilt twenty degrees.

The new Percy swore under his breath. He turned back to his ship and squinted up at the deck.

"Leo!" he shouted over the groaning and choking engines. "Please tell me you didn't blow the ship up _again_!"

A scrawny boy poked his head up over the rail, his hair splattered with machine oil and smoking around the edges. Percy felt his lungs freeze for a second time, and he heard Annabeth and Jason exchange a few cusses behind him. Leo Valdez peered over the rail of the ship, his face grim. Percy had to wait several seconds for his brain to process what he was seeing. Percy was used to seeing dead people. He had crawled through Tartarus, fought a legion of ghosts, and hung out with Hazel, for crying out loud. Seeing someone that had died while Percy had known them? _That_ was a new one. Besides, Leo's face seemed a little… off. Percy wasn't sure if it was just a reflection, but he thought he had seen a flash of celestial bronze near Leo's right cheek.

"Bad news, Percy!" Leo shouted down, nearly hacking up a lung from rapid inhalation of smoke. "Reactor's fried! If I had a few more days, maybe I could fix it. But right now, we're stranded."

The new Percy shook his head, swearing under his breath as he turned back to the three demigods in front of him. "Okay, not good. But anyway, back to the really pressing topic: do you have _anything_ for me to eat?"

Before Percy could slap himself for not giving himself enough information to possibly save himself, Piper ran up from the crowd of demigods, coughing from the layer of smoke that had settled around them.

"Okay, would any of you mind explaining what is going on?" Piper asked, looking at her three friends. She glanced at the second Percy and did a double take. She stared at the new arrival for several seconds, as if he might just float away with the smoke cloud.

"Okay," she said slowly, raising an eyebrow and glancing back at Jason, Annabeth, and Percy. "Do you three see the second Percy, or is it just me?"

The new Percy glanced over at her, as if deciding what to do next. "Alive," he said suddenly, pointing at Piper.

Piper stared at him, slightly taken aback. "I'm alive? Um, I've already figured that out."

The new Percy ignored her, instead pointing to Jason, Annabeth, and Percy in turn. "Jason's still alive. Leo's still alive, as you can tell. Annabeth…" The new Percy skipped over her, trying not to meet her gaze. Instead he went straight to Percy. "Percy's still alive, as far as I know. I'm still standing, so I assume that he'll survive for a while."

The new Percy crossed his arms, as if he had proved an important point. "The rest weren't so lucky. And I'll explain exactly how they died, if you three can get me _something to eat_!"

The newly-arrived Percy ate like a starving wolf, and Percy had enough experience with wolves to know. The boy was sitting cross-legged in the sand, devouring the little food that Piper had managed to scrounge up from the pack of campers. The collected food was by no means impressive. It consisted of exactly two candy bars, a can of soda, and a single hotdog from a boy who seemed to have come directly from the mess hall. Still, the other Percy dug into his meal like a starving man on Thanksgiving. Annabeth had offered the other Percy a meal with more sustenance at camp, but he had shot the idea down before she had even finished her sentence. Apparently he wasn't too comfortable with getting too far away from the _Achilles_.

The new Percy finished his meal in less time than Percy would use to tie his shoes. Immediately after chugging down the remains of the soda, the boy whipped out a scrap of note paper and a pencil so short it was pretty much just an eraser with a small nub of lead. He began to scribble down a short list, muttering to himself as he did so.

"Let's see… a crate of celestial bronze, two gallons of nectar and twelve pounds of ambrosia… oh, yeah, and ten pounds of unaltered imperial gold." The new Percy folded up the scrap of paper and held it out to Piper expectantly. "I'm going to need this before my crew and I even _try_ to set out again."

Piper stared at him, shifting her gaze between the paper and the boy holding it. "Um, even if we had most of that on hand, I'm not about to go fetch it for you. Besides, I may have misunderstood this, but didn't you just say most of us were _going to die_?"

The new Percy sighed, shoving the paper into his hoodie's pocket. "Geez, I'm getting to that. I'm just trying to make sure _my_ crew doesn't die, first."

Jason cleared his throat, scratching his head. "Okay, hold up. Seeing a clone of Percy is weird enough, and a Leo double isn't exactly normal, but you're telling me you have a whole crew? How? Who, or what, are you?"

The new Percy frowned, as if he was trying not to lose his patience. "First of all, I'm not a clone. If I were, I'd probably go psycho and try to kill Percy to take his place. Which I'm not going to do, by the way. And secondly, it's not exactly a crew. I think a crew requires a bit more than three other people."

Annabeth stared up at the sky, apparently deep in thought. "Okay, give me a second. You're saying that most of us are going to die, a fact that you're somehow very familiar with. You look just like Percy, for better or worse," Annabeth began, piecing the sentence together slowly, as if assembling a complicated jigsaw puzzle.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Percy and his doppelgänger protested.

"And you somehow have at least one of us on your warship," Annabeth finished, ignoring the outburst. She thought for a moment, apparently doing some major calculations in her head. Finally she sighed, shaking her head. "Okay, I only have a few guesses, and most of them are a stretch."

"Take your best shot," new Percy said, downing the remainder of his soda. "I haven't had a good laugh in a while."

Annabeth frowned, apparently a bit irritated by the comment. "First guess," she said, raising her index finger. "This is some type of elaborate prank from either one of the gods or… Leo."

The new Percy made a choking sound, almost drowning in his own soda. By the time he cleared his throat, his chuckling was starting to die down. "Yeah, I wish. That would make things much easier for me."

Annabeth glanced at Percy, as if to blame him for the attitude of their visitor. Percy felt like smacking himself in the forehead. Usually he would only have to worry about messing up his own reputation. Now there were two of him, messing everything up twice as efficiently. Not a change Percy was excited for.

"Okay, second guess," Annabeth continued, raising a second finger. "Some sort of alternate dimension? A dark world?"

The boy shook his head, a disappointed look on his face. "I remember you being smarter, Wise Girl."

Both Annabeth and Percy gritted their teeth. _Okay, note to self_, Percy thought, fighting the urge to pull back out Riptide. _Strangle myself the next chance I get_. Percy ticking off Annabeth was one thing. A clone doing Percy's job for him? Not the most pleasant experience.

"Okay, last guess," Annabeth said, clearly agitated. "Time travel. You're from the future."

The newer Percy pretended to ring a bell, a slight grin on his face. "Ding ding ding! Give the girl a hand, folks."

Percy stared at him, trying to ignore the rising sick feeling in his throat. "Wait, so you're actually _me_? This isn't some bad prank? Please tell me this is a prank."

New Percy stared back at him, raising an eyebrow. "How in Hades could this be a prank? _Oh, let's go find a kid who looks exactly like Percy Jackson, that'll freak him out_. Besides, I'm not you, you're me. It's complicated, but I'm older than you, so..."

Percy threw his arms out in frustration. "Why does it matter that you're older than me?"

New Percy shrugged. "Well, that makes me automatically cooler. Wait... does this mean I can call you Percy Jr.?"

"You can't call me that!" Percy protested. "And it doesn't make you automatically cooler."

Piper faked a cough into her arm. "_HACK_ _Percy, the thing about us dying_ _HACK HACK_."

Jason held up his hands, waving his arms to draw attention to himself. "Um, I hate to agree with cooler Percy, but-"

"Why is he cooler?!" Percy shouted.

Jason shrugged. "He has a gas mask, he just ziplined out of a warship, and he can do everything you can do. He's cooler by default. But seriously, what are we going to call you two? I'm used to calling Percy, well, Percy, but what about the older one? What do we call him? G.I. Jackson? Percy McFly? The Demi-Godfather Part Two?"

"Just Jackson would work," the new Percy mumbled, although he looked pleased with "G.I. Jackson".

Piper frowned. "And hold on just a second. Before you tell us we're all going to die, prove you're from the future. Tell us something only Percy would know."

Jackson stared at her for a second, as if digging through his memory banks. He quickly pointed a finger at Percy. "Percy never washes his camp t-shirts. He just makes sure to jump into the ocean every once in a while."

"Seriously, dude?!" Percy protested, his cheeks turning crimson. "I… I wash my shirts! I know where the camp washing machine is!"

Piper leaned away from Percy a bit, eyeing his shirt like she would a cockroach. "Um, there is no camp washing machine. You just made that up, didn't you?"

Jackson wasn't finished. He quickly pointed at Piper. "Let's see... Piper accidentally broke Jason's arts-and-crafts vase and never told him. She asked Percy to hide the pieces in the lake."

Piper's face turned pink, and Jason looked like he had just been kicked in the face by a horse. He stared at Piper. "I spent a week on that! You told me it was sent to Camp Jupiter!"

Jackson pointed a finger at Jason. "Heh. Jason cries at the end of movies." He began ticking them off on his fingers. " _Titanic, A River Runs Through It, E.T_., um..."

Jason looked like the horse had decided to kick him in the gut, too. He glared at Percy. "You promised you wouldn't tell anyone!"

"I didn't!" Percy protested. "He did! Well, I guess he's technically... ah, forget it."

Jackson chuckled, obviously enjoying the embarrassment he was causing. He shifted the finger to Annabeth, and a smile crept across his face. "Where do I start? Well, Annabeth once-"

"That's enough," Annabeth interrupted, cutting Jackson off before he could spill any more secrets. "We get the picture, you're from the future. Why did you come back? And how are we all going to die?"

Jackson shrugged. "Okay, today's the tenth or so, right? Well, we needed to come back to early August so we could get here before-"

"Twentieth," Percy corrected before he could stop himself.

The air around them seemed to freeze. Jackson stopped moving, now as still as a statue. A few moments passed with no sound whatsoever. Percy could swear that he could hear the naiads holding their breath.

Jackson seemed to shudder. He looked up slowly, staring at Percy. "What did you say?" he said quietly, his grip tightening on his handgun.

Percy reached into his back pocket, pulling out the folder newspaper from earlier that day. "See for yourself. This is today's newspaper."

Jackson ripped the paper out of Percy's hands, flipping it over to read the date inscribed at the top. He stared at the date for several seconds, a strange mix of anger and horror crawling across his face. The newspaper crumpled in his clenched fists.

"Damn it," Jackson whispered, balling the newspaper up in his hands and letting it fall into the sand next to him.

Suddenly, Jackson leapt to his feet, a murderous look in his eyes. "Leo!" Jackson roared, whipping around and charging back towards his ship. In one fluid motion, he whipped back out the zipline contraption and slammed it down onto the wire, giving himself a kickstart back up towards his ship.

Jason and Piper were the first to react. They began sprinting after Jackson, Jason glancing back at Percy and Annabeth as they ran.

"We're going to fly up, make sure he doesn't hurt Leo!" Jason called back, grabbing Piper and leaping into the air. In an instant, the two of them were rocketing up towards the ship, right on the tail of Jackson.

Percy glanced at Annabeth. "There's no way that we're just going to let them stop me without me, right?"

Annabeth sighed, shaking her head. "Percy, if I had a nickel for every time you went charging in headfirst-"

"You'd be a rich demigod," Percy finished, rolling his eyes. "C'mon, you're the smart one. Figure out a way to get us up there."

Annabeth stared at him, almost incredulously. "Percy… we're on a beach."

Percy shrugged. "Yeah, so? How are we supposed to get up there in time?"

Annabeth smacked her forehead. "Percy, fill in the blank. A beach is half sand, and half..."

Percy stared at her for a moment, and then something clicked in his head. "Oh. Right, I knew that."

Percy took off sprinting towards the water, Annabeth right behind him, muttering something about idiots under her breath. Within a few seconds, both of them were waist-deep, as Percy desperately tried to pretend he knew what he was doing. He glanced at Annabeth for ideas, but she just stared at him expectantly. Right. Water was his element. He was expected to have the plan here.

Percy glanced out at the waves in the distance, trying to make himself look in control and definitely not without a plan. Difficult, to say to least. Percy desperately tried to concoct a plan. Percy was skilled at using the water to go sideways and down. Going up? Not so much. The only thing that came to mind was an old trick that he had pulled on Jason back on the Argo: subtly building up the pressure inside a water bottle until it exploded when the son of Jupiter had opened it. Not the most sophisticated idea, but it could work. Or maybe kill them.

Percy focused on the water around him, a skill that had almost become instinct by now. The water level lowered a few inches around them, and Percy felt the water surrounding them grow tighter and tighter as it compressed. If Percy weren't the son of the sea god, the pressure would shatter both his and Annabeth's legs.

Annabeth shifted uncomfortably, noticing the increasing pressure. "Um, Percy?"

Percy bit his lip, trying to keep his concentration. This took way too long. If he messed this up, there would be no time to try again. He could only grunt a few words.

"Aim... For... Something... SOFT!" Percy managed, before releasing the pressure around them in one massive burst. The water around them shot in every direction, blasting Annabeth and Percy skywards like they had been shot out of a water cannon. Percy couldn't hear Annabeth over the rushing water, but by her shouting, it didn't sound like she was singing his praises.

Within a moment, the two of them were fifteen yards above the deck of the _Achilles_. Percy whirled around, trying to find a part of the ship that wasn't made completely out of steel. If he hit the deck from this height, it wouldn't be only his fall that was broken.

Unfortunately, Percy didn't have much time to figure out how to survive the fall. There was a brilliant white flash from the side of the _Achilles_. A blast of flame roared out of the side of the ship, raging directly towards the airborne demigods. Judging by the size of it, the ball of flame would char both Percy and Annabeth to a crisp the second it came close to them.

_Great_, Percy thought. _This day just keeps getting better and better_.

* * *

><p>(Note: I do not own Percy Jackson or any related series) Sorry for the long wait, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thanks to everyone who took the time to read this.<p> 


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